If you lose 12 times in a row (连续地), will you just give up? Dale Carnegie, a pioneer in public speaking and self-development, kept trying. And he became famous by showing people how to be successful.

Carnegie was born into a poor family in the United States. The boy didn’t see a train until he was 12 years old. In his teens, he had to get up at 3 am every day to milk the cows for his family.

When Carnegie first entered college, he felt upset because of his ragged (破旧的) clothes and ordinary(平凡的) looks. His mother encouraged him, “Why not try to be better in other things instead of just dress and good looks?”

Carnegie tried to be more active in college. He joined the debate (辩论) team. But one after another, he lost 12 competitions. The young man was very disappointed with himself. He said later that he thought of killing himself after failing so many times. But soon Carnegie was seen practicing public speaking on the riverside. His hard work paid off at last. In 1906, Carnegie won a famous speech contest and became well-known. “Believe that you will succeed, and you will,” he said.

In order to share his success, Carnegie opened schools and wrote books. His best-sellers(畅销书) include How to Win Friends and Influence People and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. More than 50 million copies of his books have been translated in 38 languages. They are still helping people on the road to success.

One year ago, I asked a worker to help me repair my old house. He had a bad first day of the job. His car broke down on the way, and then he found he had left his tools for work at home and his wife telephoned to say his son had a bad cold. While I drove him home, he was silent all the way. When we arrived, he invited me to meet his family.

As we walked towards the front door, he stopped at a small tree and touched the tree with his hands.

When we opened the door, I was very surprised to see that the worker wore a big smile. It seemed that he changed into another person. He hugged his son and gave his wife a kiss.

After a while, when he walked to the car, I asked him why he had touched the tree.

“Oh, that’s my trouble tree,” he answered. “Sometimes I have trouble with my job, but one thing is for sure—it doesn’t belong to my wife or my son. So I just hang up the trouble on the tree every night when I come home. Then the next morning I pick it up. However, when I pick it up, I hardly remember what I put the night before.”

That’s true, sometimes the best way to deal with the trouble is to put it down.

Weather changes (改变) with seasons. I like the weather with sunshine. But I really don’t like the weather in my hometown because it is dry and windy in autumn. Sometimes there is a sandstorm (沙尘暴). But my favorite seasons in Beijing are spring and summer.In spring, flowers come out, trees turn green and everything is beautiful.In summer, there are flowers everywhere.

People have different feelings in different weather. We know sunny weather can make people happy. Lots of people would like to go on trips in sunny weather. But the rainy, cloudy or windy weather can make people feel sad. So no one really likes windy or rainy weather.

What kind of weather do you like best?